Professional Documents
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Bautista bearing on the receipt by respondent Domingo on July 23, 1983 from
Gregorios wife of P5,000.00 representing partial payment of the P10,000.00
valuation of his (Domingos) 1/6 share in the property, and of the testimony of
Felimon Dagondon bearing on the receipt by Domingo of P5,000.00 from Gregorio
were not objected to. Following Article 1405 of the Civil Code, the contracts which
infringed the Statute of Frauds were ratified by the failure to object to the
presentation of parol evidence, hence, enforceable.
Contrary then to the finding of the CA, the admission of parol evidence upon which
the trial court anchored its decision in favor of respondents is not irregular and is
not foreclosed by Article 1405.
In any event, the Statute of Frauds applies only to executory contracts and not to
contracts which are either partially or totally performed. In the case at bar,
petitioners claimed that there was total performance of the contracts, full payment
of the objects thereof having already been made and the vendee Gregorio having,
even after Macarias death in 1983, continued to occupy the property until and after
the filing on January 19, 1989 of the complaint subject of the case at bar as in fact
he is still occupying it.
However it is not enough for a party to allege partial performance in order to render
the Statute of Frauds inapplicable; such partial performance must be duly proved.
But neither is such party required to establish such partial performance by
documentary proof before he could have the opportunity to introduce oral testimony
on the transaction. The partial performance may be proved by either documentary
or oral evidence.